Chapter 1: Something's Wrong
Grimlock snarled as he watched the small creatures move about under and around him. One blandly sniffed at his clawed feet in curiosity but immediately scurried away when the T-Rex used the same pede to shoo it away since his arms were practically useless.
He peered up to see his beloved Cleopatra (a T-Rex femme) roaring at him to come to dinner which most likely was a dead mammal. She was one of several new femme Dinobot companions Shockwave graciously created for him and his team (Swoop, Snarl, Sludge, Slag, and Scorn) because he felt they were lonely without mates.
Interestingly, their color scheme was black, gold, and purple instead of black, gold, and red like the original Dinobots had.
Grimlock didn't believe it at first, but he admitted silently that it was good to have a queen by his side after a while. He began navigating through the mini on-coming traffic and observed all his fellow Dinobots feasting on their meals.
Swoop and Skydive (a Pterodactyl femme) were eating apparently a group of birds which he did not recognize while Snarl and Striker (a Stegosaurus femme) stuck to a fish-based diet. Sludge and Stride (a Brachiosaurus femme) followed Snarl's feeding idea as well as Slag and Skewer (a Triceratops femme). Scorn and Sliver (a Spinosaurus femme) stuck with Cleopatra's method and munched on a few dead mammals.
The meal was decent although he'd prefer Energon, but the food they had did provide nutrients their bodies needed despite its organic nature.
He growled as more hungry organic creatures tried to take pieces of his dinner until something caught his attention. A little warning light popped up in his mind, and he immediately stormed to the direction of the trees and stopped in front of his group.
Not wanting any of his teammates nor his own mate to get hurt, he bellowed a command and listened as the herd quickly took one last bite of their meals and evacuated the area. Scorn and Slag didn't go as far as the others, for they didn't want their leader to be left with whatever it was.
Grimlock's pede scratched the grass territorially trying to caution the intruder that he was ready to fight. Nothing came forward, but he did spot something moving again and it looked to be as big as him.
Suddenly, a dinosaur-like Metal Head jumped out of the thick woods and to Grimlock's surprise, it appeared to look similar to him but it had a brownish-yellow coloring with many bodily spikes and the well-known skull gem resting on its chest; Gyros.
The Dinobot King remembered what these Metal Heads were known for: their heads rested on cable-constructed necks which hid several hundred sharp daggers that rotated around when unleashed. It made them practically invulnerable from head or upper body strikes because the opponent risked getting cut rapidly in places that would kill most. The monsters even could rotate their heads a full 360 without breaking their spine, which made Grimlock doubt they even had one from the base of the neck up.
Gyros screeched at its opponent before ramming itself into the Dinobot's hip sending the leader stumbling slightly. Soon, both attacked one another and fought off the other fiercely.
Grimlock snagged the Metal Head's tail and with all his might, threw the beast into the nearest obstacle. He charged as the monster recovered and smashed himself into the latter's chest which awarded him with a sickening crack.
Gyros roared out in pain, but looked down to see a dark purple spot grow. It was bleeding internally which it knew would kill it in a matter of minutes. The abominable creature tried to lock its jaws around the Dinobot's throat but missed and slowly sunk to the ground.
The T-Rex snarled and placed a foot on the monster's head before it could unleash its spikes. In one swift movement, he crushed the latter's skull and observed the creature cease to move.
To celebrate his victory, Grimlock barked a mighty bellow once again. The other Dinobots crowded around him and sounded off as well.
However, The Dinobot King was less than happy. The Metal Heads weren't supposed to attack them since the deal the Cybertronians made with Tigressa years ago. Something was wrong, and he wanted answers.
Cybertron was a lot livelier now than the previous years. Thanks to Optimus' quest to return the Allspark, the planet was now capable of supporting life despite the construction that needed to be done worldwide.
Many had returned and brought sparklings that they had either saved or conceived. The medics were given the job of making sure the younglings were healthy from their time away. Arcee had also found out her sisters and her friends had survived which brought the mechs a sigh of relief, for they didn't want to have any sparklings with each other.
Darkmount held Megatron and his Decepticons for the time being, since their homes were still somewhat rubble, and the Nemesis was used to transport Cybertronians to and from Earth. Most even decided to stay on the blue planet, for they thought it would be better to stay away from their destroyed home until it was fully repaired.
The Autobots, Decepticons, and many others were the usual visitors to Earth because they never could stand to leave their human friends behind. The Dinobots and Predacons stayed on the planet and were taken care of by the said humans.
Life had never been so peaceful, but Optimus found he was still having trouble coaxing Tigressa into helping rebuild their planet and keep the Metal Heads at bay. Apparently, she didn't take the revival of her former enemies' home so well, nor did she appreciate Ghost's contribution on returning those who had fallen back to their original state.
Although he couldn't revive all of them, it still ticked her off that he raised enough of them to repopulate Cybertron again. It bugged her even more that some even had the nerve to stay on the wretched insect planet.
Too bad the darkness she could control was only shadows and the starry night sky. Otherwise, she would have twisted the dark memories in their minds into a contagious madness and made them kill themselves before they stepped foot on Earth. Her telekinesis was only for communication, not mind control.
Optimus always saw the good side of every being like how he always considered the Energon crate half full instead of half empty. Most believed he would be driven insane trying to convert Tigressa to be the opposite of what she is now. Some already considered he had fallen years ago when he first challenged her. The only Cybertronians who knew the truth about the deal were his newly expanded family.
Bumblebee shook himself from his deep thoughts and turned to Knockout who was repairing a few tools Bulkhead had accidently smashed (again). In order to fix a certain tool, however, the metal on it had to be fused together by fire. Luckily, they had a friend who was known for her blistering powers.
The medic held the tool's pieces up to Firefox on a fire-proof tray and flinched as the expanding inferno scorched the metal. He knew her body heat could range up to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but he wasn't willing to find out what the flames coming out of her mouth were in degrees. He had a good idea that it was less than her body's; otherwise, the tool would have been disintegrated by now.
A few minutes had gone by after Firefox stopped her blaze before the tool was once again in working order. Knockout smiled to himself and threw it to Bumblebee to be placed back where it belonged.
"Thanks, Sweetspark! Who knew a molten maker would come in handy in the medical business?" The medic cooed as he stroked the fox's head carefully. He paused for a second to let his hand cool down from rubbing against hot armor openings before returning his thanks again to the happy techno-organic.
Bumblebee couldn't help but pet her as well until one of the Medbay's screens lit up with Elita's stern face covering a good majority of it.
"Bumblebee, Knockout, I need you two…and your…uh…new lab 'assistant' to go to Earth with a few others to check on a certain techno-organic that has recently sent a Gyros to attack the Dinobots."
The warrior's expression changed to one of shock, "Tigressa did what!? What happened to our deal? I mean, there's got to be a mistake. She never did that before in our many years together, why would she do it now?"
Elita frowned, "That is something you'll just have to talk to her about. Grimlock's bombarding us with questions and he's becoming more and more pissed off by the minute. It's your mission now; you deal with it or else…"
She paused and shut her optics sulkily as she sighed, "…I'll have no choice but to send a professional assassination squad to put down the Dark Metal Head Goddess, once and for all."
All were dead silent, but Firefox immediately whimpered at the idea of one of her family members getting killed off. The fire scorching beneath her plating died to a low red glow and her optic dimmed in response.
Knockout tried to cheer the scared fox up but nothing worked.
Bumblebee glared at Elita, who he could tell felt threatened and appalled by the action, and marched away to prepare for departure.
As the monitor with the commander's image faded back to its original blue appearance with Cybertronian texts scrolling up and down it quickly, Knockout lead the unnerved fire breather to the awaiting transport Bumblebee had returned with.
Both the medic and the warrior finally made their way to the Central Command Center where their new team would be waiting for them. At the same time, Knockout continued to stroke the ears and mane of the downtrodden fox.
Out of the blue, however, Knockout received a message from his medical comrade who was stationed at the other side of the Iacon City. The Decepticon medic couldn't help but grin at the message for both he and his leader were needed there for a certain femme problem.
"Red Alert? Arcee? Chromia?" Ratchet growled as none of the girls responded. He knew they were hiding but he only truly needed the medic femme. Besides, he had alerted both Megatron and Knockout that they were here most likely to play around and give him a hard time before departing from Cybertron.
His Medbay consisted of the top three levels of the building with his personal library beneath it. To any patients that were delivered to him were usually transported by ship to one of the several docks that could be accessed from his station.
Ratchet warily maneuvered around a few berths while trying to listen for any movement. Suddenly, his audio receptors caught a faint giggle on the other side of the level. He grew a massive smirk and tip toed straight to the room where he thought the noise had come from.
Personally, he preferred Knockout's version of Hide and Go Seek since it worked more so than the original Earth-based one. And like the latter had said, "Games are only fun when you're winning!" Boy, Ratchet couldn't agree more.
The rustling of footsteps away from him made his stealthy walk into a loud sprint towards them. He slid to a halt as both Megatron and Knockout appeared from behind a corner.
"Ratchet, care to explain why you need us to 'catch' the troublesome femmes?" Megatron hissed while the other medic just examined his claws.
Ratchet sighed before explaining the whole ordeal. The warlord raised a brow at the Autobot but didn't comment.
"Look, I need to get Red Alert's key in order to access one of the main Energon vaults on my floor. I made the mistake of putting her in charge of them and now she has persuaded the other two to help keep it away from me. Could you please help me get it?"
Knockout smiled, "Sure, but I only have a joor left before I'm supposed to leave for Earth. Lord Megatron may come with us so let's hurry this up, shall we?"
All three then split up to find the mischievous femmes, assuming that they had also split up to keep the boys confused.
Megatron knew Arcee and Chromia were not only some of the smallest femmes but they were very similar in color. He hoped Arcee would be the one he caught.
Another laugh emitted from down the hall and he knew who it was. The smirk on his face was as enormous as his plan on capturing the blue motorcycle. He quickly stalked the area until he paused to see a feminine shadow slowly making its way towards him, most likely unknowingly.
The warlord hid in the nearest room and watched as Arcee passed him, slowly checking her surroundings for any of the mechs.
She didn't realize that she was backing into a room where the warmonger was until two servos lifted her off the ground and carried her back the way she came.
"Dammit Megatron!" She yelled as she struggled to get away from him.
He merely laughed as he went back to the main Medbay where the mechs had agreed to meet up when they caught one of the elusive femmes.
Arcee was immediately placed on the nearest berth and locked onto it by energy straps emerging from the platform. She stopped her struggling as time passed only to watch as Knockout brought in a chained Chromia.
Apparently, the femme got stuck in some loose chains while avoiding the medic and found herself being dragged back with her pedes and servos tied together.
As she was placed next to Arcee, she asked, "So, how did you get caught?"
Arcee shook her head, "Well, 'someone' happened to be in the same room as me and I couldn't break his hold."
Chromia couldn't help but laugh which she then received a deadly glare from her sister.
"Oh, you think that's funny, do you? At least, I didn't get trapped in something and made enough noise to draw attention to myself. Megatron found me fair and square."
The light blue car kept quiet for the remainder of the wait.
Ratchet made his way to the medicine room hoping the others had found their runaway mistresses.
Suddenly, he felt ropes tie around his legs and dangle him upside down from the ceiling. A form almost as big as him swooped down and smiled cleverly at him.
He frowned, "Should have known you'd conjure a trap. What's the big deal anyway?"
Red Alert squatted to meet him eye to eye, "There is something called 'playing hard to get', is there not?"
The old Autobot huffed while rolling his eyes. Why he let this femme anywhere near him was beyond him. He knew one day he'd regret it, and now she has an attraction towards him.
"You are going to be the death of me, I hope you know that."
She chuckled and cut him down. As he got up, she seductively brushed her hand on his cheek which made him freeze like he had just been hit by the Nemesis.
Ratchet did his best not to look at her as they walked back to the Medbay. The only problem was that she was in front of him, swinging her hips in a manner that distracted him very easily.
Finally, they reached the bay where both were shocked to see Arcee trying to make Megatron not sit on her chassis which all were sure would kill her if he continued. Knockout and Chromia had started a conversation but Ratchet didn't care what it was about.
"Megatron," Ratchet bellowed, "what in the Allspark are you doing?"
"Well, little Miss Motor Mouth here decided to say a few unruly things that were uncalled for. So in order to make her take it back, I figured if I sat on her, she would eventually apologize."
Ratchet stared at Arcee who had a look of pain across her face as Megatron applied more pressure. "Yeah, I don't think she'll be able to if you kill her in the process. Get off of her before I'm forced to get Optimus, and don't think I won't."
Megatron snarled before getting off of the air-deprived femme who grunted as the large mech moved.
"Alright, I'm…sorry," she replied, gasping to breathe.
The warlord smiled to himself before finally unlocking the bonds that held the two wheeler.
"Now that everyone has had their 'fun', I suggest you carry on with your scheduled mission. Now, get out of here! Red Alert and I need to discuss a few things," the medic said with the red and white femme trailing behind.
The others escorted one another out and met up with Bumblebee who had a concerned expression on his faceplates.
"What took you guys so long? We're about to take off so hurry up, won't you."
Knockout sighed, "This is going to be a long trip."